Hockey Rambling

*** The Fantasy Guide was updated twice yesterday. You’ll see that a lot, especially as camps open and kick into high gear. Yesterday included the Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Christian Dvorak adjustments, as well as the Jake Gardiner news. For what it’s worth, I think the Habs became a better team after the dust settled. At [...]

As expected, the Canadiens made their decision on the Jesperi Kotkaniemi offer sheet, and it was to take the picks and let their former first-round pick go to Carolina for $6.1 million. I provided a Fantasy Take on the signing. As I was typing that Fantasy Take while explaining how the Habs need to find [...]

The NHL and NHLPA have agreed to allow NHL players to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Since the schedule already has a three-week break during February, this announcement should come as no surprise. The agreement also allows the NHL to back out if the COVID situation worsens either in the world or [...]

The Sabres have signed Casey Mittelstadt to a three-year contract with an AAV of $2.5 million. Mittelstadt finished fourth on the Sabres in scoring with 22 points in 41 games. That may not seem noteworthy, but he finished the season with nine goals and 17 points of the final 22 games of the season. Mittelstadt’s [...]

We have Bubble Keeper Week coming up here in a few days and that’s always a fun time of the year. Fantasy leagues generally aren’t won in the first five rounds of a draft, but they can often be won at the end of a draft. Fantasy teams can overcome missing on a player or [...]

Happy September, it's the last month this year without NHL hockey on! I’m going to continue my train of thought on how I prepare for the fantasy season each year. Last week I went over my mock draft practices, and the week before I dove into the beginning of my offseason planning, which starts with [...]

As the resident Montreal fan among the Ramblings writers, I figured I should chime in on the Jesperi Kotkaniemi offer-sheet situation. First thing’s first: this is genuinely hilarious. This is the kind of thing that hockey needs more of, not less. The NHL is so genuinely uninteresting outside of the game itself, unlike the NBA [...]

As fun as the offer sheet news was Saturday evening, it’s another confusing move for the Carolina Hurricanes this offseason. First the Canes trade Calder Trophy nominee Alex Nedeljkovic for virtually nothing and watched him sign a very reasonable deal with the Detroit Red Wings. Then, they don’t sign Dougie Hamilton, presumably because they were [...]

Call it payback with enough entertainment value to send a jolt through a typically uneventful Saturday during the NHL offseason. In signing Jesperi Kotkaniemi to an offer sheet, Carolina GM Don Waddell is flat out taking revenge on the Canadiens for their offer sheet to Sebastian Aho two years ago. Who said all NHL organizations [...]

Although this isn’t the Jack Eichel news that you’ve been waiting for, it could expedite the process of announcing the Jack Eichel news that you've been waiting for. https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1431283701464408065 It’s funny how less than a month ago, the now-former agent tweeted out a statement saying that “the process is not working.” Obviously, Eichel agreed, then [...]